Disclaimer: these are ideas based on my personal experience and are not a substitute for professional medical advice.
Practice one-handed as soon as you know (or think) you’re going to have surgery. Seriously. Go around your home and realize all the things you may have to adapt to doing. Food packaging and containers. Opening doors, especialy if you won't have your dominant hand. What side of a shelf you store items can make a difference. Shower soap/shampoo and containers. Opening a prescription bottle with one hand.
Watch Online Videos. Don’t take everything as absolute, but there are some good tips out there. Dressing demonstrations from Occupational Therapists. Tips from people who have had the surgery. Don’t freak out watching, though. If you’re confident you want/need surgery, don’t start watching videos that say all surgeons are frauds and 2 exercises will cure your rotator cuff. Exercises & Physical Therapy are great, but they can’t magically cure broken tissue. The more someone sounds like they’re trying to sell you on their program, ask yourself why are they trying so hard to sell, or why are they so full of hate against other options?
Get a Post Surgery shirt. Buy, make, borrow, or bribe your crafty skilled aquaintence to concoct one. You’ll need it. Don’t assume it’s only necessary for some surgeries and not yours.
Accept help. You might think you don’t need help. Maybe you won’t. Accept it anyway. People offering a home cooked meal the day of your surgery won’t necessarily still be here on week 5 when you’re sick and tired of instant or packaged food. If your family is helping you get around maybe they deserve the home cooked meal you don't feel up for. Accept the offers and show gratitude. It goes a long way.
Shop Around. Maybe you’re not sure if you need this or that. A shower stool, reaching tool, or so on. If you’re on the fence, it’s not a bad idea to make a list of what or where you would buy. No one wants to spend hours reading reviews online when they’re in pain or loopy on pain meds. You don’t have to buy everything. Just save a list. At least you know what you want, should you want it. Being prepared can help peace of mind, if you keep thinking wait, do I need . . . ?
Trim: hair, fingernails, toenails. You might be surprised how hard it is to trim nails after surgery. You may not be permitted to use your operative side actively for 12 weeks. You don't have to trim your hair, but less length means less for that tired non-operative side to deal with. It'll grow back.
Plan your sleep environment. Everyone is different, but you will likely need a lot of pillows. Perhaps more than you expect. I already had a ton of pillows. We dragged spares out of closets and chuckled at my accumulation. I used most of them. Some people use a pillows or wedges to sleep on an incline. Popular opinion (including me) is that a pile of pillows to sleep half upright is not comfortable. I was lucky to have an adjustable base bed. I had to sleep almost sitting up most of the time to releave the pain and discomfort. Propping one's head up comfortably can be challenging. You might consider a travel pillow. It took me 4 weeks post op to find something comfortable for my head. Don't be me.
I wasn't required to use the belt attachment for my sling, but I found it helpful to keep my arm relatively in place while sleeping. Still used a big sturdy pillow underneath to prop it up, as instructed.
Be nice to everyone. Whether you feel like it or not. Whether you think they deserve it or not. They have a huge potential to impact on your experience.
Things I found helpful:
Smaller towels and blankets. Don’t buy all new stuff, but if you have lighter versions, those can be easier to manage with one hand/arm. That arm is going to get plenty tired.
Long handled shower brush. Loofahs can be helpful too – you finally realize why someone would want to use that wrist strap. Lots of people recommend pump bottles. I have soap bars, which worked for me. My shampoo & conditioner are also in bar form. But I did practice this before surgery, and made sure the soap bars fit well in my hand.
Phone with a strap or loop holder. I never really appreciated those until I only had one hand. Then I thought they were genius.
Shower sling. I practiced with this before-hand to get used to the sling idea. Also nice when it’s hot and humid and the full sling is hot. Speaking of sweaty slings, I got a satin handkerchief to line the sling, and that worked better than I expected. Everything felt cooler, even if I can’t explain why.
Pulley for home PT. Wish I bought this sooner. My PT had me use a pulley to warm up until 16 weeks post-op. It’s an inexpensive investment ($10) and I used it almost every day. Probably should have used even more often.
Sling neck pillow. Having this dead weight around your neck 24/7 for 6 weeks gets tiring. You can try a washcloth as a padding, but that didn'd do it for me. The little velro ones such as on Amazon were well worth $15 in comfort to me.
Alternative Pain Remedies. I may be a wimp, but I’ve heard/read many other posts saying shoulder surgery can be one of the most painful surgeries. In addition, they usually prohibit NSAIDS or other anti-inflammatory supplements 7-10+ days before surgery. I verified with my surgeon’s office before I used these: bio-freeze, salonpas, ice packs.
Ask a ton of questions. Make a list if you need to save them for the next appointment. Things like how they recommend dressing, showering, etc. There's tons of strategies out there.
Things I would do differently:
I mentioned getting a haircut/trim above. I still recommend that. I should have gotten an aggressive trim. Instead I got a little carried away and lopped off several inches. I didn't realize how much my neck and ears would burn. It's fine; it'll grow back. Wouldn't do it again.
I would have accepted more offers to help. Last year's surgery, people offered to bring food, etc. and I said no thanks, I'm good. No one offered this year, and this surgery was so much worse. I was ok the first couple of weeks. By week 4 or 5 though, I got a little tired of pizza, take-out, food from a mug. My spouse got tired taking care of me, shuttling me to and from physical therapy twice a week. He deserved the food and TLC even if I didn't.
I would've gotten the silly surgery recovery tshirt sooner. I ended up getting it to go to a family reunion. You should have seen everyone stay the heck away from me. It's silly, but if this kinda thing makes you smile, I say go for it. Send subliminal healing vibes to myself. I think I found the perfect message, though I don't like the design. It says "I survived another surgery. I'm invincible." It's good for all future surgeries or whenever you need a boost.
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